This episode is brought to you by Lifelock. The New Year brings new health goals and wealth goals. Protecting your identity is an important step. Lifelock monitors millions of data points per second. If your identity is stolen, Lifelock's restoration specialist will fix it, guaranteed or your money back. Resolve to make identity health and wealth part of your New Year's goals with Lifelock. Save up to 40% your first year. Visit lifelock.com/podcast. Terms apply. It's Sunday, and you know what that means. And this is the Dick Morris Show, presented by the Patriot Gold Group, Ears Dick Morris, on 77 W.A.B.C. Hi, welcome to the Dick Morris and Doug DePiro Show, sponsored by the Patriot Gold Group. Well, today is the first day of the rest of your life. (laughing) One of the new things in the rest of your life is going to be a congestion tap. Oh, God. We're doing New York City. It starts today, January 5th, and Doug DePiro has been researching it, and he will tell us all about it. Yeah, I got congestion, first of all. All right, good. You know, last week, remember when I was, I got a call from the studio. There's something weird in the background. It was me wheezing when I was breathing for my congestion. All right, so the congestion toll to start Sunday, right? So I'm going to read this. New York City congestion pricing begins Sunday. That's today what you need to know. Okay, one exactly does it start. What is the congestion release zone? Any motors, anything Manhattan? I don't know what anything takes a night for. I wanted to, you know, play the music. I wanted to get Forrest Gump. What's that, Lux? Okay, to the get when Forrest Gump says, "Are you sick? "Do you have congestion and something, something?" For the music. Anyway, let's read this. What's the congestion release zone? Any motorist entering Manhattan at 60th Street or below on Surface Street will be told. Surface Street's basically, I have to look that up. All the highways are not surface. Surface streets are the streets, right? Avenues and streets. Ramps, highways are not surface. Tunnels, bridges, not surface. So we'll get that out of the way. So how much will they be told? It depends on what you're driving as well as the time of day. Those behind the wheel of the ordinary passenger vehicle cause SUV pickup trucks will be charged $9 for entering the zone between the hours of 5 a.m. and 9 p.m. on weekdays or 9 a.m. and 9 p.m. on weekends. Larger vehicles, trucks and non-communibuses will be charged more, which is 1440 for buses and smaller box trucks. $21 for the big rigs. Motorcycles, thank you, will be charged at least with the base toll of 450. Will they go off? What do you think will they go up? Yes, the tolls are expected to increase over time. By law, the toll is required to raise $15 billion towards the MTA's capital budget. A figure that the MTA plans to reach by selling bonds back by tolling revenue, yeah, okay. In order to back those bonds, the base toll will go up to $12 in 28, in 2028 and rise to 15 in 31. Are there ever reduced tolls here, okay. Overnight tolls will be significantly lower. Two dollars for those in regular passenger vehicles less than the course of the submarine or bus ride, okay. They're trying to be nice to us. How will I be billed? The best rate HOCO said, $9 once a day for ordinary cars. See, that's good. I thought it was gonna be $9 back and forth either way. One way, one day you get a toll. $9 once a day for ordinary cars is only for drivers with easy pass transponder. That's another thing I had to look up I'll talk to about that in a minute. Drivers in the same type of vehicle without easy pass will be charged $13.50, the base toll by mail, okay. The transponder is that plastic thing you put on your windshield, but then they also have a New York State easy pass. That's less money, so we have to look into that as we're going, it gets confusing. MTA officials say that easy pass transponder issued, transponder's issued by the state will work, except in the case of discounted rates. So the transponder won't work with the discount, which will require New York issued easy pass. There's some confused about, but we'll figure it out. And drivers should make sure the easy pass account is up to date with their current plate number before tolling starts on January 5th. It's important that the driver's license plate matches the easy pass, the tax to the car. See, that's another thing. I often give somebody my easy pass or they, you know, you're far the mother and say, go into the city, so that's gonna be a bit of a problem. Due to traffic density on the roads leading to congestion, the system will first look at the vehicles, license plate, and then try to match it to the easy pass transponder signal. If a license plate is not tied to the easy pass, the driver will be charged the toll by mail rate, regardless of whether or not the transponder knows. So you're not getting fined. You're just getting charged at a normal rate. What if I leave the congestion zone and then go back-- - Reminds me, 68th Street. - Yeah, and coming into this thing is 68th Street. Below 68th Street is where they're handing out, they're going in your wallet, okay? So what if I leave congestion zone and go back? Will I be charged first for us and no? Ordinary motorist, those who drive the everyday cars SUVs, pickup trucks, subject to $9 toll, can only be charged once a day, so that's good. There's a big exception for larger vehicles though trucks and buses will be charged each time they enter the zone. For drivers subject to the once a day toll, the system will reset at midnight, okay? Get it? That means drivers who enter the zone in early morning hours before 5 a.m. on a weekday will be charged only 75% discounted overnight until it might get in that, I guess so. Are there any roads that are exempt from tolling? The West Side Highway, the FDR Drive and the Battery Park underpass. The tunnel under the battery that links FDR Drive to the West Side Highway are all deemed to be outside the congestion pricing zone. A driver who rounds the horn of Manhattan on the highways from the Upper West to the Upper East Side, for example, not be charged. So if you're above 60 and you're on the highways, East Side, West Side, you're not gonna get charged. You're only charged what they call the surface streets, obviously the streets and avenues. Okay, next question. Is the West Side Highway South of 57th Street considered a highway yourself? Now, just answer them reading, doesn't make sense, and exempt highway. So I looked it up, it looks like South of 57th Street on the West Side Highway is not gonna be charged. I kind of looked it up, what I was doing, whatever I was doing here to figure this out. So I'm not sure. I don't think you're gonna be charged South of 57th Street. All right, what about coming off bridges and tunnels? That depends on the bridge or tunnel. If you enter Manhattan at the Brooklyn Battery Tunnel and drive directly up the East Side and the Upper West Side to North of 60th Street, without leaving the highways, you will not be charged. So once again, okay. Likewise, a driver who goes between the Brooklyn Bridge and the FDR Drive using the on-ramps between the two will stay off the surface streets and therefore not be charged. Similarly to connections between the West Side Highway and the Brooklyn Battery Tunnel is not considered part of the congestion zone. So once again, no. But not all the bridges and tunnels connect directly to the highway. So if you're going to pay, so you're going to pay if they're not all connected, right? If you get onto a surface road. Drivers coming down the West Side Highway to get to the Holland or Lincoln Tunnels. Lincoln Tunnels, or headed down to the FDR with an eye toward the Williamsburg, Manhattan or Queensborough Bridges or the Queensmen Town Tunnel will have to first jump on surface streets and then you will be charged, nice. Likewise, drivers coming into Manhattan off those bridges and tunnels into streets will pay, okay? So next question. So if I take the Holland or Lincoln Tunnel and pay that toll coming in from New York Jersey, New York Jersey, I get told again when enter Manhattan, yes, but during daytime hours from 5 a.m. to 9 p.m. on weekdays or nine to nine on weekends, the MTA will discount part of the tunnel toll with what they're calling a crossing credit. Ah, that's cute, thank you. For the Holland and Lincoln Tunnels, the crossing credit will start at $3 for ordinary drivers and climb to five by the time the full toll phases in 2031. For the Brooklyn Battery and Queens Midtown Tunnels, the credit will start at $1.50, right? Isn't this so confusing? Not really, but it says a lot to take in. What about gridlock days? The congestion pricing plan as approved allows the MTA discretion to tack a 25% surcharge on the toll on days declared by these transportation department to be gridlock alert days. Those days said to be the heaviest traffic days of the year typically come with winter holidays in the United Nations Assembly, the city DOT declared 20 such days of the shares as gridlock alert. If invoked, that would raise the base toll to 1125 on those days. Hoke or less on Governor Hoke last month, indicated that she would not, she would put the kibosh on gridlock days hikes. Barry Williams for New York Daily News, that's right. Will it cost more to take a taxi and an Uber? And of course it's gonna cost more. Taxi, Uber's lifts and other for higher vehicles with Taxi, Limousine Commission plates will be assessed as surcharge. Those surcharges will start at 75 cents for taxis, dollar 50 for Uber and Lyft in 28, up until 28. That increased to a dollar for taxis, $2 for the Uber's and Lyft in 31, 20, 31. It'll go up to 150 for taxis and 250 for Uber's and the Lyft's. So what's the best way to avoid congestion? Don't go into the city. Here's my congestion, take Nickwell. No one will be told for leaving congestion zone, only for entering. If you drive from north of the congestion toll to the Hudson, George Washington, whenever you're not gonna get charged. It's the same for New Jersey drivers entering Manhattan. And if you stay north of the 60, you're not gonna get charged, okay. What about getting to and from other boroughs? The Holland River crossings include the tri-borrow, which is at the RFK bridge and various bridges connecting Manhattan to the Bronx, such as the McCombs Dam Bridge, Yankee Stadium or outside congestion zone. Most of the East River crossings specifically, the Manhattan Williamsburg and Queensborough bridges, as well as the Queensman tunnel, connect onto Manhattan side only to surface streets. So you will get told, charged. Since the Brooklyn battery tunnel and Brooklyn Bridge are accessible directly from the FDR and the West Side Highway, motor issues and costs and all of these won't be charged. The Brooklyn Bridge has several entrances that are on city streets. However, any driver used in those will be charged, okay. All their discounts available. There are limited discounts available. Drivers with federal adjusted gross income of less than 50,000 last year can get 50% discount or at the daytime rate. And any trips made after the first 10 in each calendar month, I don't understand what that means. New Yorkers who live in Manhattan at 60th Street or below, in other words, within the zone, can apply for, this is what we're gonna apply for tax credit matching the amount spent in tolls, but only if they make 60 or, oh, so guess we can't. That's not happening. Full exemptions are also available for vehicles that are used to transport people who have disabilities or health conditions that prevent them from using transit, whether those, I guess if you have a, what do you call it? A handicap sticker thing. Whether those are driven by those people themselves or by caregivers. Application for those exemptions or discounts can be found on the MTA's website. Those seeking that discounts will need to have easy pass issued by New York State in the vehicle which can be obtained even when drivers with out of state plates. Okay, so that's it. Now you're all sleeping. - Yeah, no, no, they're not sleeping. They're busy taking notes. - I don't know. That was long-winded. - I think it's perfectly important to understand that all of this is made possible because of the anesthetic that we all take when we use easy pass. - Right. - Back in the day, the big issue was always the subway fare. And we'll have a song about that in a minute. But the idea is that now it's not, nobody cares about the subway fare. It's not a political issue because everybody uses easy pass or various other passes to pay their tolls. So they don't really know how much it is and they don't really much care. - And it's an invisible thing. It comes out of your credit card or your bank, yeah, yeah, yeah. - Exactly. - You're checking account? - I use the easy pass constantly. I have no idea if my bank says it. - Right. - And this was-- - Until they told you car away. - This was originally passed as a convenience, the easy pass. But what it's become is a scheme for the government to tax you without you realizing it. And to render tax increases and toll increases, politically acceptable to the voters. It's basically an anesthetic that stops you from feeling pain when you get charged higher taxes. - And it works somewhat. - And this whole thing would not be possible if it weren't for that. If there was some guy with his handout on the 60th street and he had to pay him nine bucks each time because of the barrier, they'd be held to pay. - Well, there is that 56th street exit, there's a guy. - Yeah, but now there's-- - Well, it wouldn't play a political fall out. He's nobody who knows they'd be in tax that way. - Right. - It's really, you have to see easy pass as an anesthetic to prevent the pain from tax increases. Okay, when we come back, we're gonna be guessing on the phone, Michael Levine, who was a New Yorker, but he now lives in Los Angeles. And he's done an important article about what we do and make the subways usable. And now that we're all gonna have to take subways as opposed to the congestion tax, what are we doing to make sure we don't get killed on the subway? - Oh, God. - This is "The Dick Morris Show", presented by the Patriot Gold Group on 77 W.A.B.C. ♪ I don't see the left of me ♪ ♪ Joke us to the right ♪ ♪ Here I am ♪ ♪ Stuck in the middle with you ♪ ♪ Yes, I'm stuck in the middle with you ♪ ♪ And I want what it is I should do ♪ - So, obviously, we're all gonna be fortunate now to use a mass transit. And in particular, to use the subways. That's the point of the congestion tax. But the subways crime issues have gone completely crazy. And what are we gonna do to make subways safe so that people can use them without risking their lives? - The Charlie at the MTA in Boston have solutions to this problem. So, let's listen to it. ♪ Well, let me tell you of the story ♪ ♪ Of a man named Charlie on a tragic and fateful day ♪ ♪ He put tenths in his pocket, kissed his wife and family ♪ ♪ Went to ride on the MTA ♪ ♪ Well, did he ever return ♪ ♪ No, he'd never return land ♪ ♪ His fate is still unlearned ♪ ♪ He may ride forever beneath the streets of Boston ♪ ♪ He's the man who never returned ♪ ♪ Charlie handed in his dime ♪ - Put it on. ♪ He couldn't handle square station ♪ ♪ And he changed for Jamaica plain ♪ ♪ When he got there the conductor told me ♪ ♪ One more nickel Charlie couldn't get off of that train ♪ - For Charlie. ♪ But did he ever return ♪ ♪ No, he never returned ♪ ♪ And his fate is still unlearned ♪ ♪ He may ride forever ♪ - So we got Michael Levine on. - Okay, hey, Mike. - Hello, sir. - How are you? - I'm fine, I'm okay. How's that congestion tax going over? - Yeah, right. Well, I use Kleenex and some people use NyQuil, but they're surviving. Hi, Michael, this is Doug DePiro, Dick Morris, this guy. - Hi, Doug. - Well, what? - Okay, Mike, so New York City Subway, a model of urban engineering, as devolved into an emblem of chaos, violence, and fear. Headlines detailing the stabbing of a man in Queens, the selling, setting a flame of a woman in Brooklyn, and the horrifying New Year's Eve assault, where a man with shove-duds and the tracks have become unsettlingly common. With felony assaults up 55% since 2019, since 2019, and 10 subway murders alone in 24, it's no exaggeration to say the system has become a crucible of peril. So, despite well-intentioned efforts by city officials, including increased police presence, outreach teams, and international guard patrols, violence persists unabated. Faced with this alarming trend, the time-tested broken windows theory emerges as the most logical and practical solution. Take it from there, Mike. - Well, friend, I think that you've witnessed something that I couldn't have imagined even five or 10 years ago, which is the total abandonment of any sane, safe transportation in New York City subways. I started writing New York City subways in 1963. I was nine years old. I wrote them alone at nine. Many young people wrote them alone at nine. Today, the thought of allowing a nine-year-old in a subway alone is impossible. So, there was one theory during the last 30 years that seemed to create a system of safety and security in New York City. That was called the Broken Windows Theory. I wrote a book about it and it is that minor infractions must be confronted immediately or they propel into much, much greater problems and that is what we've seen. Now, we're at a place where it is so dire. I mean, no one in their right mind rides the subways in New York City unless they have to, right? And many people have to, but it is unthinkable what's become of New York and of course, I blame more the voters than I do the governor or the mayor. We get, you know, you know this better than anyone, Dick. You're the smartest guy in politics. By far, we get the government. We vote for elections do indeed have consequences. The members of my hometown, the society, voted for Mr. De Blasio, not once, but twice. Now, you can make a mistake once. It's unbelievable. I mean, they must have suicidal instincts. So, if this is the city they want, if this is the way they wanna live, then keep voting the way they have been voting. I don't know what else to say. It's... - Mike, did you... - Unsustainable. Did Rudy pick up your, that system from you or did you hear from him? 'Cause he used that, the broken yundo theory. - Neither, he picked it up from a criminologist named James Q. Wilson and George Kelling who wrote it back in August of 1982. It actually was written by UCLA professors at the time in Los Angeles and Giuliani and Bratton... - And it worked, it worked well. - It didn't work well, it worked miraculously. - It worked miraculously in about four weeks. You remember squeegee men, my friend? - Yes, I do. - I remember squeegee men where you would park in Midtown Manhattan in broad daylight. 10 menacing men would jump on your car and then respectfully ask for a gratuity. Do you remember that? - And stand in front of your car when you move until you're gay. - Correct. - Right, the will is having you bridge, right, by the McDonald's they used to stop all the time. Now for me, they looked at me and they went the other way. - Yeah, I understand. - But you know what happened with that was Hillary and Al Sharpton put the kibosh to that for other reasons in Harlem when they would stop people at midnight. That's what happened with that. - Look, you had Rudy Giuliani and Mike Bloomberg had stopped in frisk and the city seemed to work fairly well. The crime was, it is so common now that there's crime in the subways in New York. I feel like if in January, no one has burnt alive on a subway, they will have a press conference announcing the great job they've done. It's unbelievable. - It's unbelievable. - They've replaced the central heating. - That's horrible. And I ride the subway, I used to ride it all the time. So it really is time to revive the broken window theory. And it is in my mind, it's also time to revive common sense and the first principles of government protect your citizens. I mean, my God Almighty, why this shouldn't be clear to anyone over the age of 10 is beyond me. - Just common sense. And these two policies, they both can be attached with the same label, the broken windows theory and the theory about making sure that you, that you catch repeat criminals. - Stop and free, yes, of course. - Just by stop and frisk. Stop and frisk and broken windows. - That was Ray Kelly. - That was Ray Kelly into crimes in New York City. And we need to bring both of those back. Stop and frisk was killed by the courts because it wasn't done well. And you could do it in a way where it would be legal and constitutional and not sit down to be racist. But after a policy was designed by Rudy and by Mayor Bloomberg that passed that test, the court threw it out. And then the new administration of the Blasio had no interest in making it work so they didn't make any of the changes the court recommended and the process was completely dropped. - That's why they get voted in. The people that want it, that don't want to be forced. - And that's why crime has increased, so in New York. - The criminals were voting the men. So those two proposals, broken windows and-- - Stop and frisk. - Stop and frisk. We're absolutely the solution to crime. And then the crime problem got unsolved because of the politicians and the courts. - Wasn't that big with Ray Kelly? Stop and frisk. - Yeah, very big. Very big. And it looked like stop and frisk might be coming back because Mayor Adams in his campaign talked about that but nobody had the guts to do it. - That's exactly right, Dick, you're, you've hit on it. The society, New York City society, no longer has either the will or the capacity. Remember, when Rudy Giuliani was mayor, there were 40,000 New York City police officers. Today, that number is down to 33,000 and it's diminishing each year. - The truth is the city doesn't have the will or the capacity, right, to do what is necessary to regain the safety and security of the New York City subways. - The city doesn't have enough Republicans. That's where it is. - There you go. - Well, and listen, Republicans have a far better record on this but they're not without fault. I mean, it's outrageous, it's outrageous and the citizens are to more to blame than the, everyone sits around and complains about the governor and mayor. I want to talk about the citizens that continue to vote for these imbeciles who have suicidal urges for a society, I don't know what to say. - The suicidal urges are fine, it's the homicidal ones that I don't like. We need more people like Rudy. That's what we need. I don't know who the next mayor, Curtis, maybe? - Well, thank you, Mike. I really appreciate you coming on and reminding us of this policy. Thank you. - Thank you, Mike. It's great. - Now, while that's happening, there was a little progress this week on the issue of confining people who are mentally ill and using that to reduce crime. Patsy Klein had some thoughts about that. - Oh, it's such a clutch off-season pickup, Dave. - I was worried we'd be bringing back the same team. - I meant those blackout motorized shades. - lines.com made it crazy affordable to replace our old blinds. - Hard to install? - No, it was easy. I installed these and then got some from my mom. She talked to a design consultant for free and scheduled a professional measure and install. - Hall of Fame Sun. - They're the number one online retailer of custom window coverings in the world. - Blinds.com is the goat. - ShopBlinds.com right now and get up to 40% off selects all of them. And off selects dials, rules and restrictions may apply. - Come on, Patsy. You could do it, Lux. Crazy. ♪ I'm crazy for feeling so lonely ♪ ♪ I'm crazy ♪ ♪ Crazy for feeling so lonely ♪ ♪ I'm crazy for feeling so lonely ♪ - Don't hulk up said Friday. She'd introduced legislation in the state budget, which makes it easier to pass, to involuntarily commit those suffering from mental illness to hospitals, setting up sick and violent crimes on the city subway system. A spate of shocking crimes, including the women fatally sat on their alarm, a boy of Brooklyn bound F train. And the man thrown in front of a one train, many allegedly done by those with serious mental illnesses, have brought the issue of public safety on the city's transit system front and center. We can't fully address this problem without changes to state law, Ochle said. That's what I would be including legislation in my executive budget to finally change New York's involuntary commitment standards, Ochle said. Ochle wouldn't elaborate on exactly how they plan to expand the commitment laws, but these details will be in the executive budget. Currently hospitals in the state are able to take in people who are at risk for themselves and others. The new legislation will expand that definition to allow for more involuntary removals, according to a press release. The move comes after Mayor Adams has for months pushed Albany to enact legislation broadening the grounds for involuntary removal. With today's announcement, we are exceptionally grateful this is Adams talking, together the whole goal for listening to our calls and to the calls of every day New Yorkers. And we look forward to working with her to develop next steps to finally codify these changes into law items set. There is no dignity in withering away on the streets without the ability to help yourself. And no moral superiority in just walking by those individuals and doing nothing. The Mayor's own involuntary commitment initiative under which NYPD officials and outreach teams took in individuals who appeared to close a threat as tested off controversy since its start in 2022. The government's legislation is likewise to set this likely a set off a fight with some left-leaning elected officials. Some progressives and mental health advocates have warned that expanding the policy could imperil people who aren't actually needing hospitalization. And that's simply recovering. Removing people from the subways does not provide any more long-term solutions. Yeah, okay. But it provides a lot of short-term solutions. Yeah, right. That we need. And we absolutely need them. You can't, on the one hand, tell us that you can cater, pay through the nose to be able to drive. And you've got to be robbed to use the subway and mass transit and put your life at risk. You can't do both of those. Right. And that's the lesson of this. Now, if New York seems better, there's a reason for that. It's because there are far more Republicans than Democrats that were added to the electorate this year. We'll talk about that in a minute. This is "The Dick Morris Show," presented by the Patriot Gold Group on 77 W.A.B.C. ♪ Clowns to the left meet ♪ ♪ Jokers to the right ♪ ♪ Here I am ♪ ♪ Stuck in the middle with you ♪ ♪ Yes, I'm stuck in the middle ♪ ♪ I'm gathering around people ♪ ♪ Wherever you're on ♪ ♪ And adding myth that the waters around you have grown ♪ ♪ And accepted that soon you'll be drenched to the bone ♪ ♪ If your time to you is worth saving ♪ ♪ And you better start swimming ♪ ♪ Or you'll sink like a stone ♪ ♪ Or the times we are changing ♪ The 2024 election featured far more Republicans than Democrats in the electorate, reducing a long-time trend in party identification, dating back to the New Deal in the 1930s. Exit polls nationally showed Republicans outnumbering Democrats by five points in the AP vogue cast survey and four points in network exit polls. Until the current election, Republicans only came out even with Democrats during the '94 Reagan Revolution and the period just after the 9/11 attacks. Before, like President Ronald Reagan revamped the GOP's image during the '80s, Democrats had held the advantage in their party's identification, which sometimes reached a two-to-one margin during the '60s and '70s. Reagan's landslide in 1984 narrowed the Democrats' advantage even though Republicans won several national elections before then, including Nixon's win in '72 by 23 point. But in 2024, it was the first time Republican identifiers outnumbered Democrats coming four years after 2020 when Republican and Democratic turnout was roughly even. So talk about fundamental change until a few years ago, until after the election 2020, Democrats outnumbered Republicans in the total vote. And this year, for the first time by five points, Republicans outnumbered Democrats. And party identification is probably one of the most reliable and dependent on indices of this partisan strength. So the world is getting a little bit better. Let's go to Michael and Rockaway. - Hey, Mike. - Hello, how are you guys? What's up, guys? - Good. - Well, I'm really furious about this congestion pricing. And when it was first breached, the idea with under the Bloomberg administration, I think the way that we have to combat this is that people who are in the Outline boroughs in New Jersey have got to start boycotting all Manhattan businesses and organizations. That includes, I was a tremendous contributor to the ballet and to the opera and to museums. And I told them over the Christmas period, I said, I'm not continuing my donations anymore, substantial. I think that's the only thing the liberals understand is when you hit them in their pocket. - Yeah, I think you write about that. The thing that strikes me and really infuriates me is that for many, many years, for decades, the subway fair, and then later the tolls on bridges and tunnels, was an absolute hot button issue. When anybody dared to raise them, would lose the election and would end their political careers. And then something that was sold to us as a convenience, easy pass, completely defanged that issue politically and gave the Democrats, the Rand City Hall and the state, completely say fair permission to raise taxes, raise tolls, and raise the fair without any political consequence. And what you're seeing now with this congestion tax is using the excuse of traffic congestion. That's all it is, is an excuse. They are smuggling in hundreds of millions of dollars of additional revenue for the subways, for MTA, claiming that it's a congestion tax. - Yeah, would they say they want 15 million? - Billion, 15 billion. - Yeah, so what they're doing is that they've essentially found a goose slip lays the golden egg. - Us. - Us. And doesn't know they're laying the egg because of the easy pass. - Right. - And through that mechanism, they're going to be increasing dramatically the amount we pay without our feeling it, without our even knowing it. - And then forget that, and then you have all the fine from people don't pay 'cause they didn't get it in the mail. So as that up, I bet that's gonna be 20%, 25 extra. So there you go, and every aspect of what they, when they can get money from us, they're gonna do it. And the easy pass is the invisible pass. - Yep. - That's what it is. You know, I liked it when it came out. Actually, and first, I wouldn't have it for a couple of years. I didn't want anyone knowing where I was, right? But I liked it after a while. Like when I go out to Jersey to see my mother or whatever, you just go through the tolls and not stop. And so there is something good about it, but this thing is not gonna go well with all the people in the city. Now, while all this is happening, credit card default rates in the United States are the highest they've been since 2008. Stevie Wonder has some thoughts about that. - Yeah. Come on, Stevie. ♪ I'm too high ♪ ♪ I'm too high ♪ ♪ But into the sky ♪ ♪ I'm too high ♪ ♪ I'm too high ♪ ♪ But in the sky ♪ - By the way, I'm sure everyone knows the songs. I pick and the song Dick Morris picks. They're all his or all do, do, do, do, do, do. Mine are cool, funky tunes. Listen, the calling number, 800-848-9222. Once again, the calling number, 800-848-9222. - Defaults on US credit card loans have hit the highest level since the wake of the 2008 financial crisis. It's signed that lower income consumers' financial health is waning after years of high inflation. Credit card lenders wrote off $46 billion in seriously delinquent loan balances in the first nine months of 24, up 50% from the same period the year before and the highest level in 14 years. The high income households are fine, but working class households are increasingly having to go into credit card default. - 40-6 billion. - During the campaign, President Trump advocated something that was actually an idea that Chris Ruddy suggested to me and while we were having dinner and I called Trump and suggested it to him. And he's adopted it and oddly enough Bernie Sanders just endorsed the bill. Legislation to codify Trump's proposal to cap credit card interest rates. The idea was that Trump proposed a 10% cap on credit card interest rates. And Trump, and the point is that the interest rates on credit cards are now running north of 20%. - That's unbelievable. - And with a large number of people entering default in their credit cards, the cost of that interest rate is enormous. - You know, first of all, someone using a credit card, you know, doesn't have the money maybe to start with. And now that goes up to, you know, if their rate is 20% forget about it, they never got to pay that back. - Trump said while working Americans catch up, we're going to put a temporary cap on credit card interest rates. We can't let him make 25 or 30%. He said of credit card companies. Carol and leverage a Trump campaign spokeswoman whose since been tapped to be White House Press Secretary said at the time the intent of the policy was to provide temporary and immediate relief by our working families. She specifically mentioned those who were struggling to make ends meet and cannot afford hefty interest rates on top of the skyrocketing costs and mortgages, rents, groceries and gas. But this is something that Trump can do and I think will do immediately. When you go into default on your credit card, they stop letting you use it. And then they send you a bill for the amount you've racked up. And typically that has an interest rate of 18 or 20, of 28 or 30%. So you may have gotten the credit card initially with the rate of only five and 8%. But now it's tripled or quadrupled. And you're in default. You know, I have some questions for you after the break. I want to ask you a question or two about that. Okay. All right, let's go to break. Let's go to break and we'll discuss that when we get back. This is the Dick Morris Show, presented by the Patriot Gold Group on 77 WAVC. Welcome back to the Dick Morris Show with Doug DePiro. Sponsored by the Patriot Gold Group. My God, did you hear that ad that they, that bite that they just played from Wiener Anthony Wiener who was attempting a political comeback? DeBite? And he started by getting space on this radio station. He's literally saying that the Bronx is no longer in flames and is no longer a poverty area because of the influx of Dominican immigrants who have totally turned things around. And he's using that to justify support for increased illegal immigration in the United States. And this guy is doing a political comeback here. So whatever you do, don't vote for Wiener. He was a disaster when Hillary was running for president and he's a disaster now. You were saying Doug. The credit card, all of a sudden the person loses that credit card, they can't use it anymore. And then it goes up to whatever you said, 23, 20. 18, 20. Yeah, right. Why do they do that? Because they can. The laws in the various states are supposed to stop usury. And to do that they impose strict limits on how high credit card interest rates can go. But once you're in default, those limits go away and they can charge whatever they like. And they do. And one of the huge sources of income of credit card companies is the default interest rates. And by limiting those to 10% which Trump has proposed and now Bernie Sanders of all people has endorsed, we close a gigantic loophole that's responsible for a vast amount of pain and suffering by people who are having trouble catching up. And it's a major change, a very important one. And it looks like Trump is going to do it. You know, if I buy cash, I didn't buy it. I had a credit card for emergencies and rent the cars and that type of thing. But growing up, if I couldn't get a cash or go to dinner or cash, I did not go. I couldn't, you know, being an artist and a freelance artist. You know, your money, it's like a roller coaster all my life. Anyway, why don't we take Sandra, New Jersey. I think she's got some good stuff to say to you, Dick. - Hi, Sandra. - Hi, Sandra. - Good to talk to you. Thanks for calling. - Happy New Year to Dick and Doug. A happy, healthy, and a prosperous New Year. - Wait, did you say sloppy New Year? What was that? - No, I said happy New Year. I have a cold. - Oh, I think it's a sloppy New Year. - No, no, no, happy, a healthy and a prosperous New Year for both of you. - So you too, right now. - That's what I said. - I know. - Thank you. So, so here's the story. This is Biden to me, to all of us, is a ticking time bomb. You know, he probably says to himself, "How can I continue to do more disgrace for myself?" - Yeah, right, that sounds like it. - Right, so he honors George Soros, the Megadona, who has so much blood in his hands, the Presidential Freedom of Honor Award, and also Hillary, who abandoned the navy fields in Libya. Now, you have to know Soros is a Jewish man. He escaped the Nazi occupation. And also, the reason I bring that up is because he funded, he gave so much money, tens of millions of dollars, to all the groups supporting anti-Israel protesters on the college campuses. - So don't forget, sorry to interrupt you, Sandra, but don't forget that under the Nazis, when he was a teenager, he got a nice part-time job helping Adolf Eichmann decide who he would kill. - No way. - Yep, he worked for the Eichmann regime, the Nazis. - He's not a real Jew. - In Hungary. And he was part of the process, whereby the rabbis submitted lists to people that they would like the Germans to protect, and then they were all killed. - Well, he was just Jewish by birth, not... This guy wasn't... - Yeah, well, I don't think he won any amigas, but he was so outrageous in that, and for this bastard to get the middle of freedom is absolutely absurd. - Go on, Sandra. - He assumed himself, but go ahead, Sandra. - Now, now my blood is boiling, because for the past month and a half, I've been watching all the Holocaust stories, all the truth stories, and to learn this today from you, Dick, about him being a part of that, oh my God, he should rot and you know where. But anyway, so he gets that honor, and Hillary gets that honor. This guy, he has too many days left, he's gonna do more damage, and this is my call to today. I'm so sick. I'm very upset. - Oh, God, that's so right. Hitler, he gets that too. How dare her... It's not Biden, this has got to be Obama. What do you think? Do you think this is Biden even thinking about this? - I don't know. I don't know. But the fact of it is very clear, and let me just review it here. - Yeah, oh, Sandra just wrote me that Soros had a non-Jewish mother, and Jewish Laura goes according to your mother, determined, okay, so, and Jewish, right. So he had a non-Jewish mother, so... - In 1944, the year of the German occupation, Hungary, it was my formative experience. Instead of submitting to our fate, we resisted an evil force that was much stronger than we were, yet we prevailed. But as the communist consolidated power in Hungary after the war, Soros left Budapest in 1947 for London, and emigrated to the United States in 1956. But when he was in Hungary, during the Nazi occupation, which lasted one year, the eichmann, who was in charge of the fingering Jews for the Holocaust, sort of catching up because Germany had not been occupying Hungary until 1944. They enlisted rabbinical and other community leaders in the Jewish community to help organize the deportations and organize deportations to gas chambers. And he was involved in that, and he was paid for that. - All right, we're on a hard break, Dick, so when we come back, we're gonna continue this, okay? And that was a Judas that sent that would I just read a minute ago, all right. - It's Sunday, and you know what that means. And this is the Dick Morris Show, presented by the Patriot Gold Group, ears Dick Morris, on 77 W.A.B.C. (upbeat music) ♪ Clowns to the left me ♪ ♪ Jokers to the right ♪ ♪ Here I am ♪ ♪ 'Cause I'm stuck in the middle with you ♪ ♪ Yes I'm stuck in the middle with you ♪ - Welcome back to Dick Morris and Doug DiPiro's show, sponsored by the Patriot Gold Group. President of the Trump administration has a major opportunity to deal a blow to the sprawling censorship industry, both inside the government and in the private sector. Trump promised in a campaign video in December 22 to shatter the left-wing censorship regime by among other proposals, signing executive order borrowing agencies from collaborating with private platforms to suppress speech and ordering the DOJ to investigate parties involved in censorship. If Trump takes the steps that he's indicated he will, one focus of anti-censorship efforts I anticipate said a civil liberties attorney is non-profits like the Atlantic Council and the Sanford Internet Observatory that operates middlemen between the government and the tech companies. As President Trump should ensure that the White House and his executive agencies do not work with these groups to censor, miss her disinformation. In fact, all government efforts in the misinformation, disinformation and mal-information spear should end since this clearly results in suppressing First Amendment free speech. So Trump has the option of directing government agencies not to cooperate in this process. This is a process where the government has, one of their officials, tell these agencies that they should finger and single out commentators and radio and TV stations that provide what they consider to be misinformation or disinformation or mal-information in connection with issues like COVID and politics and voting irregularities in 2020 and so on. Under Biden's administration, the White House staff made explicit requests for platforms to restrict COVID-19 related speech. Other agencies participated in speech suppression with the CDC Center for Disease Control flagging posts for removal and the cyber-security infrastructure, security agency, CIGA, forwarding misinformation, forwarding misinformation reports from elected officials and platforms which they called switchboarding. CISA likewise helped to create the election integrity partnership in 2020, which the SIG played a key role in running to monitor misinformation reported to the platforms during the 2020 election. A federal court judge declined the last week to dismiss a lawsuit against the CIO, the SIO along with several other new groups over the alleged targeting of conservative speech. Private citizens cannot be permitted to partner with the government to censor Americans free speech. So... - Put that in one hat. - At the same time, such individuals managed to escape accountability for their actions because of doctrines like qualified immunity. However, there can be exceptions to qualified immunity when government officials knowingly flout people's civil rights and those exceptions should be applied to the first amendment in the first amendment context. - Now simplify that the way Dick Morris can. - President Trump can order all executive branch employees to cease and desist from listing companies and radio stations and TV stations and individual commentators and citing them for promoting mis and mal and disinformation. In other words, if you're a radio station or a TV commentator, you have to be aware that the government can close you down if they find that you have reported misinformation or disinformation or what they call mal information on your show. And that exists as a tremendous disincentive to pull it to the political right. And particularly during COVID, the CDC, the Center for Disease Control, did everything is good to stop expression of alternate theories about COVID's origin and about how to deal with it. And the Trump administration during his campaign said that he would direct executive branch employees not to cooperate in these efforts. And to not designate anyone or any agency in a private platform to suppress speech and Trump wants to order the DOJ to investigate parties involved in censorship. - We're talking about private, you know, Facebook and TikTok or whatever. - What about private businesses like WABC radio? - Right, and the idea was that the government would tell the radio station or the TV station, hey, be careful about saying this because we don't think you should be and we think that this is misinformation or disinformation and you shouldn't be carrying that. And sometimes this would provoke government action. Sometimes the threat of government action would be enough to muzzle people. What Trump is referring to here specifically is that by listing them on the index of companies that do that stuff and that they find are spreading misinformation or disinformation. They can discourage advertisers from advertising on those shows. - Also hit him in the wallet. - And this has had a huge impact on the bottom line of conservative media. There are many stations that do not receive a lot of ad revenues because the government has warned the advertising agencies not to let them buy ads, not to sell ads to them because they are dangerous and they promote misinformation and disinformation. Trump can end that practice in a moment by signing executive order, making it clear that organic nonprofits like the Atlantic Council will stand for an internet observatory, SIO, that operates middlemen between the government and the tech companies. As President Trump should ensure that the White House and his executive agencies do not work with these groups to censor, miss or disinformation. In fact, all government efforts in the MDM sphere, misinformation, disinformation and malware information should end since they clearly result in suppressing First Amendment protected free speech. So this is a big, big deal. We got through your song replies to that. ♪ Don't you push me, push me, push me ♪ ♪ Don't you push me down ♪ ♪ Don't you push me, push me, push me ♪ ♪ Don't you push me down ♪ - Now you know who picked that song? - Yeah. - Not me. - One of the crises that is brewing in the world at the time that Trump is about to take office is of course the issue of Taiwan. And President Xi of China gave a speech over the New Years saying that no one can stop the reunification of China with Taiwan. No one can stop President Xi Jinping setting his New Year's speech, laying down a clear warning to what Beijing regards as pro-independence forces within and outside the Taiwan in Ireland of 23 million people. In the past year, Beijing has stepped up military pressures near Taiwan, sending warships and planes almost daily into the waters and airspace around the island. And what Taiwanese officials view as a creeping effort to normalize China's military presence. China regards domestically, democratically government Taiwan as its own territory. But Taiwan's government rejects Beijing's claims and is only its people can decide their future in Beijing or to respect the choice of the Chinese people. Xi said President Xi of China, the people on both sides of Taiwan straight are one family. No one can sever our family bonds. No one can stop the historical trend of national reunification. President Xi said in the speech televised on China's state TV. Xi said China's reunification with Taiwan is inevitable. And the people on both sides should be bound by common sense and purpose to share in the glory and rejuvenation of the Chinese nation. Tensions have remained high throughout the year in the sensitive Taiwan Strait, especially after losing tea. The newly elected president of Taiwan, who is deemed a separatist, won the election. Early this month, China staged a massive massing, staged a large massing of naval forces around Taiwan in the eastern South China seas. After President Leif Taiwan stopped over in Hawaii and the US territory of Guam on a Pacific-based trip criticized by Beijing. China, which never announced the use of force to bring Taiwan under its control, conducted two realms of war games around the island this year, saying they were warnings against separatist acts and vowed to take further action if needed. US arms sales to Taiwan, allowed by the Taiwan Relations Act, have continued to strain Beijing's ties with Washington. China's regularly warned the US against any military ties with Taiwan and slap sanctions on military suppliers and their executives. - Sanctions to where? - What? - They slap sanctions, China regularly won the Taiwan slap, sanctions on military supplies and their executives. - Yeah, people who are supplying Taiwan with weapons. - It's got it. - Military assistance. - Got it. - So, China is planning its next offensive to be taking over Taiwan. You recall that they used to focus mainly on Hong Kong and Macau, but they used a 1999 deadline, a hundred-year treaty that gave Britain control of Hong Kong to reassert its exploration, to reassert Chinese power over Hong Kong. Now they're trying to do similar stuff with Taiwan. The history of Taiwan is that it was always a part of China. It's an island that was called Formosa. And when the Chinese anti-communist lost the Civil War in 1949, the Chinese nationalist anti-communist government packed up and fled to the island of Formosa and declared the province of Taiwan to be their territory. Now-- - China never acknowledged that or-- - No, China refuses to acknowledge it. And, of course, at the time, the Chinese nationalists, led by President Chiang Kai-shek, said they were planning to conquer China, that they had not lost the Civil War, that they were still there. And that was the official policy of Taiwan and the US government recognized Taiwan as the legitimate government of China. But then when Nixon initiated the relationship with China and visited Beijing, the year 1970s. - Yeah, I remember that. - When he did that, the United States changed its policy to a two China policy in which it recognized Taiwan and China as having conflicting jurisdictional issues. Now China's threatening to escalate that further into an actual war by invading Taiwan. - Was China not strong enough to take Taiwan when they went there and they-- - No, they were not. Mainly 'cause the US Navy controlled the China Strait and our Navy prevented their forces from crossing the Strait. - Got it. - And kind of equivalent to the Pharaoh's Red Sea crossing. And now China has been beefing up its naval capacity. - It's big. - With a view toward taking over Taiwan and it's going to be one of the key issues in the Trump administration. Now of course Trump has within his power the ability to cripple China's economy by sanctions, by tariffs and by other means. And it's enormous power Trump has. And the issue is will he be able to use it to save Taiwan over the speed, the first major confrontation. When we come back we'll talk about all of this and we'll revisit the issue of the issue of muzzling Trump administration people on social media. - This is "The Dick Morris Show" presented by the Patriot Gold Group on 77 W.A.B.C. ♪ The clowns said to let me ♪ ♪ Joke us to the right ♪ ♪ Here I am ♪ ♪ Stuck in the middle with you ♪ ♪ Yes I'm stuck in the middle with you ♪ ♪ And I'm on what it is like ♪ - Can I talk? Yeah, I forget the next story or the next two. Go to number 10 New Jersey Scraps Law for basic skills test for teachers. No song though. Welcome back to "The Dick Morris and Doug DePiero Show" sponsored by the Patriot Gold Group. Ever since the, since the pandemic, there has been a serious crisis in education, which is the students who were barred from attending school for two years. Have never caught up in reading your math. And the democratic response to this has been to raise teacher pay and try to reveal more people into being teachers and think hoping that this compensates for the closure of schools. But now New Jersey has removed the requirement for teachers to pass a reading, writing and math limit certification to go into, was to have gone into effect on January 1st, 2025. The new law that would have gone into effect and now won't attempt to address the shortage of teachers by cutting out the requirement that they'd be proficient in English math and reading. - That's why they're not required. - Not required. - To be proficient in math and English and the stuff. New Jersey is especially need of math and science teachers according to the annual report from the State Department of Education. Just months earlier, Governor Murphy signed a bill that created an alternate pathway for teachers to sidestep the testing requirement. A powerful teachers union and New Jersey Education Association was a driving force behind the bill calling the testing requirement an unnecessary barrier to entering the profession. - Really? - Teachers in New Jersey are paid an average of $81,000 a year. The New Jersey Board of Education will eliminate the requirement for most teacher candidates to pass basic reading, writing and math tests to gain certification. The new rule effective January 1st, 2025 excludes those seeking limited certification or eligibility. - So if they don't need that certification and they're getting 81,000, so should we cut them to 60,000 men? - No, we should have a requirement to pass these tests. - That's ridiculous. - You don't teach it if you don't know it. - That is absolutely, you talk about common sense. - And to use the COVID epidemic, pandemic, and to use the closure of schools during that period as their excuse for not testing teachers and letting people who don't know reading, writing and math teach is just outrageous. Other states such as California and Arizona also lowered requirements for teacher certification by implementing fast track options for substitute teachers to become full-time educators and eliminating exam requirements in order to make up for the shortages in the field that were worsened by COVID. A student struggled to repair learning losses caused by school closures during the pandemic. Some states such as Massachusetts have opted to lower testing requirements for students allow more to pass rather than make up for the lost education. Teachers unions continue to hold major bargaining power in some blue states pushing legislation that protects teachers despite their failure to improve learning outcomes for students. Only about half of New York students in grades three to eight tested as proficient English and math in 22 and 23 school year, despite the states spending almost twice the national average in education. And New York teachers remaining some of the best paid teachers in the country. - I know what this is, I got it. It should be a bumper sticker, the Dumber Vote Dem. - Yeah. - You know what the Dumber people are, the more they control them. I mean, how is this possible? - And actually it's kind of parallel to something earlier in the show. Because of easing pass, they're using the excuse of congestion in New York City in traffic to increase the congestion tax and funnel more revenue to the MTA without the citizens knowing it. And because of the pandemic, the closed schools for two years, they're now using that as an excuse to lower teacher qualifications so that the teachers don't have to know what they're doing when they're teaching or students. - That doesn't make any sense. - And of course, the flip side of that is that after they do that, they then require that high school degrees we passed out like water. - Yeah, right. - Those standards are reduced. And basically businesses can't rely on the schools to properly educate their future workforce. - Then how are they gonna get more money for education if they keep doing this? That's what they're gonna say. Oh, education is down, we need more money. - Exactly. - All right, very good. - And that's how the liberals do it. - Yeah. - By closing the schools 'cause of COVID that was totally unnecessary. When students, when young people didn't get COVID, but they still closed the schools to protect the teachers, these students have low test scores, low education and taiments. And now the teachers who are supposed to remedy that, themselves won't have to pass these tests. - 'Cause they have lower scores. - Yeah, they have lower scores. And then when everybody gets degrees, even when they can't read the degree, if it's even, if it's in English, and they get hired and it goes on. - Wow. - So this is just the most incredible ongoing fraud that's going on. - Could you imagine if like Leonardo Da Vinci and Einstein, and they came back today, and they read about this, what would they say? Really? The teachers don't even know English and math, and they're teaching? What about all the brilliant people in the world? - Now there have been extensive exposures of fraud on money that was allocated after 9/11. And the fraudsters of the 9/11 pandemic funding are about to get away with their crimes. Brett Young has a thought about that. - That would be a song, right? - Brett Young, you got away with it. - The fraudsters. ♪ You got away with it ♪ ♪ So don't you go breaking it ♪ ♪ Girl you've been making it tough ♪ ♪ From eating that love ♪ ♪ Giving little things that you do ♪ ♪ Baby, you got away with it ♪ - As much as 40% of the money that was allocated by Congress in the emergency period after the COVID pandemic began was stolen and beddled. And unless Congress steps in, the five-year statute of limitations on unemployment fraud cases will expire in March. Congress has approved hundreds of billions of dollars in the initial amount of assistance in March of 2020. But current law gives prosecutors five years to bring most government fraud cases, including unemployment fraud. Congress is considering doubling the statute of limitations with hasn't yet reached a compromise. The inspector general community, senior Republicans, and President Biden, who proposed doubling the statute to 10 years and letting the states keep some of the frauds and money they recover. Senator James Langford, Oklahoma Republican, announced the latest legislation two weeks ago, making the government more efficient isn't the part of the initiative, it's an American issue. In December alone, prosecutors in Maryland announced indictments against two men accused of bilking more than a million dollars by filing for unemployment benefits under stolen identities. Authorities said the same scam lasted from March 2020 through February 21. But now those fraudsters who claimed money as a result of the pandemic are likely to keep their money and not be prosecuted because the statute of limitations has lapsed. In a race comparing the ability of the government to assure efficiency and the statute of limitations, calendar clicking till it becomes impossible for the government to act, the criminals are definitely winning that fight. Now, one of the areas in which the justice is winning is Donald Trump's law fair fight against the various liberal forces trying to lock him up and trying to sanction him. Do we have that clip about your out of order? Go free, then something really wrong is going on. Mr. Smith, when you are out of order. You're out of order. You're out of order. The whole trial is out of order. Fair out of order. That man, that's crazy. That's how Pacino is helping us out here. Pundits and historians will be long time sorting out the magnitude of President Trump's electoral victory. But one thing is already clear. Trump not only triumphs in the presidential contest, he also won the law fair war. The latter, a victory for constitutional foundation of this country, may prove consequential as the former. Law fair is the political war brought by other means, partisan warfare in the courts and the media. Trump spent the entire Biden presidency battling law fair cases brought by democratic allied prosecutors and judges. By Justice Department's special counsel, Jack Smith, Manhattan DA, Alvin Bragg, Georgia DA, Fannie Willis, and New York State AG, Latisha James, and New York judges Warren Morschand and Arthur Engeron. Trump fought back in the courts and in the court of public opinion. His election win not only deals death blows to the democratic aligned law fair cases, but possibly to the practice of law fair itself. Let's take a moment to review the late legal landscape. Jack Smith goes down. In November 22, Joe Biden's AG, Merrick Garland, appointed prosecutor, Jack Smith, as special counsel for two Justice Department investigations. The January 6, 2021 events at the U.S. Capitol and separately, Trump's alleged mishandling of classified documents. It was a particularly brazen law fair move because by the time the outline of the 24 presidential race was clear, Trump was the front one running for the Republican party and Biden was signaling maybe not running for reelection. The Biden Justice Department investigating the GOP presidential candidate seemed an outlandish and unlawful proposition. But Garland and Smith both pressed on, and in July, Judge Arlene Cannon had seen enough and dismissed the classified documents case on the grounds of the special counsel himself was unlawfully appointed. In November after the election, the Justice Department threw in the towel and moved to dump all January 6 charges against Trump on the grounds that a sitting president cannot be charged with a crime. Trump rightfully claimed victory. "I persevered against all odds in one," he wrote in truth, Joseph. "These cases, like all the other cases I've been forced to go through are empty and lawless and should never have been brought." Deep Blue New York produced a cadre of law fair warriors in support of them once in future for a Republican president. One of its chief combatants was the Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg, who campaigned campaign for offices on an anti-Trump platform, reminding voters they had sued Trump more than a hundred times. Before charging Trump in April of '23, with 34 felony counsel falsifying business records, generally a low-level misdemeanor, Bragg had related a civil lawsuit against the Trump administration and the Trump organization. Trump was convicted in May on the business records charge, but his lawyers are seeking that the case be thrown out on numerous grounds, including that any sentencing would unconstitutionally interfere with Trump's conduct of the second term as presidency. Bragg, recently petitioned the court to put the case on ice for the entire Trump's second president of Trump. Trump moved the Trump team ridiculed as a total failure of prosecution, signaling that the case is effectively over. Presiding over the flow of appeals in the business records case is Justice One Machan, another New Yorker with a law fair pedigree. Earlier this month, Machan threw out Donald Trump's appeal to dismiss the case on the basis of presidential immunity. Like most New York judges, Machan rose through the ranks of the Democratic Party political machine, which plays a significant role in state judicial appointments. Before becoming a judge, Machan served as a prosecutor in the Matt and DA's office and worked for the New York State Attorney General. In 2006, Mayor Bloomberg appointed him to a family court judgeship and he was elevated to the criminal court in 2009. In July, Machan received a citation caution letter from the New York Commission on judicial conduct warning him about donations to Joe Biden and other Democratic causes. Machan's daughter, Lauren, is president of the left-wing digital advertising firm Authentic Campaigners. One Machan will have plenty of power over the Trump appeals in coming months, but he will not have the final word. Trump can appeal to the courts and ultimately to the U.S. Supreme Court. At the same time, more teacher James than New York State Attorney General. Wait, I have a question here. I'm sorry. If it goes to the Supreme Court, even if this is a state, right, it's a state, so it can't part himself. It goes to the Supreme Court, it's still state. It is state, but the federal government can't intervene. Then can he part himself? No, he can't. Because the charges are state. Yeah, but the idea that the U.S. government can't intervene in the case is based on the constitutional amendment, the 14th Amendment, that guarantees citizens of the state the rights of free speech and all of that. And based on that, they could be able to intervene in the case. But can't part of himself, okay. Trump also faced the high stakes legal assault from the Wikician James, New York State A.G. in a civil lawsuit case. But all of them came up through the ranks of the Democratic Party. Like Alvin Bragg, James used Trump as a punching bag in her campaign denouncing Trump as an illegitimate president and vowed to shine a bright light into every corner of his real estate dealings. The result of the guilty verdict in the civil case or the Trump to pay $335 million penalty, plus rapidly growing interest and additional fees. Trump vowed in his appeal and September hearing that New York, this was excessive, and appellate judges in New York expressed skepticism about the ruling. And when we come back, we'll talk about the Fannie Williams case collapsing. But one after the other, these cases against Trump, this massive law fair account assault that consumed hundreds and thousands of hours of television and radio time talking about it and dominating the campaign. So one after another going away were being thrown out. Hopefully they never had any merit in the first place. And now the people who brought them are abandoning them because of Trump's victory. Okay. An accountability I'd like to see. This is the Dick Morris Show, presented by the Patriot Gold Group on 77 W.A.B.C. Coming back with the police, I'll be watching you. John Yellen's department of treasury may be going out of office with Biden, but they haven't stopped trying to enforce new surveillance laws of questionable constitutionality. Directed a small business, the Corporate Transparency Act, CTA, mandates a federal level business registry. This is new, requiring even more sensitive information than typical state level business registrations. Fortunately, there is some reassurance that with the coming Attorney General Scott Bessent and legal action against CTA, these attempts may not work. But gambling in this is risky in light of the crippling vines for non-compliance and the quickly approaching deadline. Treasury is implementing its desired federal business registry through a new financial crimes enforcement network, FinSEN, and will include the full legal name, date of birth, home address, and passport license ID number of all beneficial owners of a business. Nearly all of your personally identifiable information placed in the government database that certainly won't get hacked. FinSEN's reporting website went live on January 1, 24. Owners of euphemistically entitled reporting companies must submit their reporting data by 13 January 25, or face a $600 day fine, and up to two years in prison for willful failure to comply. Just remember, these are regulations being enacted by the Department of the Treasury after the election, after Biden's defeat, to last indefinitely, to give them information to crack down on small businesses in the future. Despite Treasury claims to the contrary, there's little practical evidence, like direct mail and phone calls, et cetera, that the Department has made sincere efforts to inform businesses of this requirement. Many business owners may not know about it, especially those without a full-time accountant who warned them. Perhaps this is because Yellen's Treasury did not clearly define which businesses qualify as a reporting company. FinSEN's applicability flow chart terminates only in no or maybe. The exemptions table permits more identifying process of elimination, but TDAs is not applied to the government, banks, insurance companies, large corporations, et cetera. Worse than the daily fly of iron for non-compliance is arguably the cost of compliance. The law's name, transparency, but FinSEN database will be exempt from FOIA. We, the people, will not have transparency into this database, but the database asks the business owners to be even more transparent than they've already been with their state registrations, which have been the public domain. This is not transparency. It's domestic spying on those who submit to it. Such a database could be used as a backdoor visibility on individual side sources of income or to monitor the firearms industry. The Treasury's vacant applicability standards and bankruptcy-inducing penalties, outsourced to FinSEN to administer, seen designed to funnel honest business owners into a surveillance trap. FinSEN and the CTA could be obliterated by any court or injunctions any day now, but the Treasury and by extension justice department will get their hands on people's juicy, personal and financial data, a lot of lowest learners scandal in the meantime. Okay, Dick Morris simplicity. This all goes to show the importance of the song by police. [Music] Now, it's plain. So, this is an effort by the Biden administration. It's a last gasp to ever last grasp of everybody's personal business information. Small businesses that have escaped under the wire and not had to reveal all kinds of stuff about their ownership structure or anything else will now be required to make this revelation under heavy criminal penalties that could go up to $600 per day for each violation and could cause bankruptcies and even imprisonment in business owners that don't comply. This is being sprung on us at the absolute last moment, a week before Biden leaves office. And it's being sprung on us because they couldn't get it done during the election because it's such an outrageous, such an outrageous intrusion. But they think they might be able to get away with it. So anyway, they think they might be able to get away with it now. Yeah, well, first of all, I really can't grasp this much you're talking about. It was the last gasp of a grasp, right? Yeah, well, they're on their way out of office. And there's one area whose privacy they have not come to us, which is the ability of small businesses not to have to disclose their ownership structure or other stuff about them. And just in case their demand is not sufficiently outrageous or sufficiently large, they haven't even defined who has to report on this. So imposing this new regulation and it's just doing it last minute, real quick. What do I want to ask you? It's not an executive order, is it? No, it's a treasury department regulation. It's truly unbelievable. Let me just get away with this guy at the last minute. Do you think it's him, probably not even him. Do you think it's his people? No, no, this is his people. Biden, we're talking about it. Yellen's treasury department has enacted, with its last gasp, is still attempting to enforce a new surveillance law of questionable constitutional integrity, constitutionality, directed at small businesses, the Corporate Transparency Act, mandates a federal-level business regulatory registry requiring even more sensitive information than typical state-level business regulations. Fortunately, there's some reassurance that the incoming treasury secretary, Scott Bassant, and legal action might be able to block these new regulations. In the meantime, Treasury is implementing its desired federal business registry through a new Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, FinSEN, that will include the full legal name, date of birth, home address, and passport license ID numbers of all beneficial owners of a business. That's not great. So, this is all of a piece, actually, with the first story we had, the congestion tax. What the Biden people and the Democrats are doing is, as they lose power, as they have to surrender power to the incoming Trump administration, first at the local level, they're imposing this congestion tax that gives them access to vast amounts of additional money without the voters really knowing it. Secondly, they're imposing new financial regulations through this FinSEN reporting system that requires reporting to small businesses to file all kinds of new information, or face $600 a day fines and up to two years in prison for not complying. Despite Treasury claims to the contrary, there's little practical evidence that the department has made sincere attempts to inform businesses of this requirement. Many small business owners might not know about it, especially those without a full-time accountant to mourn them. Perhaps this is because Yellen's Treasury does not clearly define which business qualifies reporting companies. Worse than the daily fine for non-compliance is arguably the cost of compliance. The law's name includes transparency, but FinSEN database will be exempt from FOIA. We, the people, will not have transparency into this database, but the database asks business owners to be even more transparent than they've already been with state regulations. So this is just more of big brother in all the typical? Yeah, but enacted by an appointee who's leaving office for an administration that's leaving office in the closing hours, and when literally nobody's paying attention, and for years now, business men will be able to behold before courts and made to, and set, and find, and sentence for not complying with registration requirements that are being passed today at the last moment. But if Trump gets a secret of acts, can he? Can he just execute a border or hell out of this thing? He can, but he may not. I mean, he obviously wants to, but this is so buried in all kinds of regulations. And bear in mind that the bureaucrats use these kinds of laws, not just on money laundering, but to monitor the firearms industry, users to put them out of business, going after tobacco companies, going after all agency, all companies that used to be regulated, and now are being subject to this unbelievably intense enforcement. All right, we need a break. We all need a break. Give me a break. This is the Dick Morris Show, presented by the Patriot Gold Group on 77 WAVC. Dick Morris, we've got one very important thing, by the way. Welcome back to the Dick Morris and the Superior Show, sponsored by the Patriot Gold Group. And we've got one very important thing. Whose birthday is it? Happy birthday, Roxanna. Oh, yeah. Hi, Roxanna. Happy birthday. To you. Chief Justice John Roberts condemned elected officials who have intimidated judges and defied court rulings in his year-end report Tuesday, as part of what Roberts called illegitimate activity that threatens the rule of law. Roberts did not name any specific person. But he did know the federal district court judge, whose decisions in a high-profile case prompted an elected official to call for her impeachment and sparked the need for bar association to come to a defense. Attempts to intimidate judges in their rulings and cases are inappropriate and should be vigorously opposed. Roberts wrote, "Public officials certainly have the right to criticize the work of the judiciary. But they should be mindful of the intemperance in their statements when it comes to judges may prompt dangerous reactions by others." His comments come as, "Public trust in the courts is near record lows and a heightened threat environment bolstered concerns about judges' security." Another report did not mention Trump by name, but it comes as Republicans are upset to take on unified control of Washington. Trump has regularly accused judges overseeing his legal cases of political bias, and during his first presidential term, his criticism of a judge appointed by Obama earned a rare public review from the Chief Judge. Roberts said it is not in the nature of judicial work to make everyone happy. Most cases have a winner and a loser. The administration suffers in the court system. Sometimes in cases with very major implications for executive or legislative power or any other consequential topic. This year he again raised the law about violence against judges and highlighted his threats to increase and remain online on the form of doxing. Hit it. ♪ I shot to share it ♪ ♪ But I did not shoot the dick ♪ ♪ ♪ I shot to share it ♪ ♪ But I did not shoot the dick ♪ ♪ I shot to share it ♪ You're a funny guy, Dick Morris. Now, so... Roberts noted that... Yeah, so Roberts' attack here really on Trump comes after Trump has been through the most unbelievable experience of discrimination, of biased law enforcement, of the courts not paying attention to the basic law and using all their powers to vilify a man who's running for president and who we trusted with the presidency. This is just outrageous, and Roberts's ruling, while we can't disagree with the basic concept, is absolutely terrible. Was he a George Bush... Bush. Pointy, first Bush, or second Bush? Second Bush. Right, W. Now, Washington at the moment is scrambling to figure out how to pay for Trump's new tax cuts. In 2017, Trump cut a huge amount of taxes, and largely was responsible for the economic boom of the last four or five years. The laws took effect toward the end of Trump's first term, and the amazing thing about it is that these cuts did not add at all to the federal debt. The historic tide of rating is raising concerns that new borrowing could send federal interest rates soaring, slow economic growth, and spike inflation. But with most of Trump's 27 tax cuts set to expire at the end of 25, the GOP plan to extend the law created increased the debt limit by close to $5 trillion over the next decade. To avoid busting the budget Republican leaders accounting on savings from spending cuts and new revenues from tariffs. But before we go through them, I just want to make the point that the past tax cuts did not cost us a dime, because our at-laffer, the economist, is absolutely right. Then when you cut taxes, you do not cut revenue. In fact, in many cases, you increase revenue because of the decrease in taxes. People have more money to spend. I worked in the Clinton White House, and one of our proudest accomplishments was four years of no deficits of reducing the national debt, and we accomplished that not by any tax increases. But by cutting the capital gains tax, they've increased business transactions, created jobs, and swelled federal revenues, eliminating the deficit. But nevertheless, here are 10 policies Republicans are looking at to deal with Trump's new proposals. The big one is to impose new tariffs. It could be $2.7 trillion. Trump said "tariffs" is the most beautiful word in the dictionary. Campaigned on new tariffs on all imports plus additional levies on Chinese imports and additional tariffs in recent weeks on profits from Mexico and Canada. Tariffs could raise a significant demand to pay the revenue, perhaps as much as $3 trillion. Now the tariffs will ultimately be paid by U.S. consumers rather than foreign companies. It is important that usually we pass the cost of tariffs along by raising the price of their goods in response to domestic producers who often raise prices to increase profit margins. But Trump has developed a very sophisticated method of opposing foreign retaliation and extending other tariffs and sanctions to stop the retaliation. This is going to be the ongoing war story, really, of 2025. In next week's show, we'll talk about other revenue raising proposals Trump is going to make. But this whole issue of the budget battle, extending Trump's tax cuts and enacting his new tax cuts by banning taxes on tips and overtime and social security benefits will be the story of the year. I just want to give you a heads up. As far as the tariffs go, Dick, we're going to see the tariff war, if we're going to call it that. We're going to see results immediately. A month later we're going to see tariffs. We're going to see what's happening with China or whomever with tariff. So it's not like it's going to go for three years and you're going to find out what happens. That's the one thing that's pretty important here. And by the way, it's been an honor to be here with you. Take that for a moment. Alright. Alright. Happy Birthday, Roxanna. Happy Birthday, Roxanna. Roxanna. ♪ ♪ Lowe's knows how to help make your Super Bowl 59 party a touchdown. Let us help you prep your home to host with top brands like Charbroi, Blackstone, and LG so you can be the MVP of Game Day. Plus, use the Lowe's app to find what you need for a seamless shopping run. Or, huddle up with our Lowe's Red Vest Associates to help make all your game time hosting decisions. [MUSIC PLAYING]
This week Dick Morris and Doug DiPiro talk about congestion pricing, the broken window policy, credit card loans hitting record highs and much. They are also joined by Michael Levin and they discuss how to improve the MTA.
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